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Posted Mar 9th 2007 9:33AM by Michael David SmithFiled under: BearsBears long snapper Patrick Mannelly, fullback Jason McKie and former Bears linebacker Otis Wilson (pictured in the locker room after Super Bowl XX) were planning to play in a basketball game to raise money for the library for Jacobs High School in suburban Chicago. But the Bears demanded that it be called off, saying Mannelly and McKie were risking injury and that promoting a game using the name 'Chicago Bears' violates the team's rights."

Class struggle for NAACP - baltimoresun.com: "Class struggle for NAACPBy Earl Ofari HutchinsonOriginally published March 9, 2007Bruce S. Gordon was, as always, tactful and circumspect in explaining why he was bowing out as NAACP president after only 19 months at the helm. He would only say that there were differences between himself and others in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; presumably, that meant his differences were with some on the organization's 64-member national board. His low-key pronouncement was in keeping with the no-nonsense, corporate approach to civil rights advocacy that he brought to the organization."

Unable to attend summer camp with her sister because she broke her arm, she decided to raise money for C.A.R.E. - an organization that works to end global poverty - after reading about it in The New Yorker.

'Sniveling, I said, 'Well at least I can do something with my summer,'' she said. 'So I called all my eighth-grade friends together and we worked all summer, and we put on a carnival in my backyard ... and raised nearly $50"

The ruling last week by a Hillsborough County judge will save the MacDowell Colony nearly $150,000 a year in property taxes. It already pays some property taxes on portions of its property not used for its charitable mission."

LONDON -- They call themselves 'the haves and the have yachts': rich London bankers and traders who drop tens of thousands of dollars for an evening of cocktails and hire 'personal concierges' to get their girlfriends dresses like those worn by movie stars.

Long a hub for the world's ultra-rich, London has just welcomed an unprecedented number of newcomers into those ranks. Analysts here estimate that London's financial stars were paid a total of $17 billion in annual bonuses in recent weeks -- including more than 4,200 people who received bonuses of at least $2 million each, on top of salaries already sagging under the weight of zeros."

Mustaches and music mesh well - Features: "What do you get when you mix a well groomed mustache, a 4-foot-wide Afro, local band Kinetix and a worthwhile philanthropy? Lambda Chi Alpha's Mustache Bash, of course.

The third annual charity concert took place at the Gothic Theatre last Thursday."

The founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, has named a new leader for his personal philanthropy as he explores ways to play a bigger role in shaping public policy.

Matthew J. Bannick, who most recently ran eBay’s global philanthropy, will become the managing partner of the Omidyar Network, which handles Mr. Omidyar’s charitable gifts as well as investments in businesses that have social welfare goals, like Prosper, an online lender."

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Sharing Witness: Walking the Talk: From Founder-Centric to an Institutionalized Organization: "One of the most difficult challenges facing entrepreneurial, innovative leaders who found organizations - whether business or nonprofit - is knowing when it's time to move to broader-based ownership so the organization becomes independent and capable of sustaining its long-term impact. Sooner or later these founders face a day when the organization they helped birth is no longer theirs alone."

Comerica gave $8.3M last year to some 1,300 Detroit-area nonprofits, $16M nationwide.

Amy Lee / The Detroit NewsDETROIT -- Comerica Inc. may pull its headquarters out of Detroit, but it has no plans to pull charitable cash contributions to area nonprofit organizations, according to bank officials."

Cal State Fullerton administrators and students said Tuesday they support the man who pledged $4.5 million to put his name on a new business school building, but a professor who first questioned the donor's background said he will continue to challenge the matter.

Steven G. Mihaylo, a 1969 graduate of Cal State Fullerton, said he cares only about supporting his alma mater, not about getting his name on the new $87.5 million building."

Leaders of New Jersey's schools, hospitals, arts centers and social service agencies are optimistic about the future but pragmatic about the challenges facing them, according to a survey from Rutgers University.

The Nonprofit Leadership Index 2007 -- the inaugural survey conducted by the Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Leader ship at Rutgers Business School -- offers a mixed portrait of this business sector. Among its findings:"

Southerners are a generous people who give more to good causes than folks in any other region of the country.

But according to a new report, this Southern giving mostly is charity—giving to relieve immediate distress—as opposed to philanthropy, which is financial support of good causes that invest in solutions for bigger problems.

The difference is highlighted in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, said Ferrel Guillory of the University of North Carolina."

B.J. Motley grew up in a home where giving was a given, no matter how much or how little his family had.

'My mom always said if she had one last quarter or one last dime, and she'd seen somebody who needed it, she'd give it to them,' the 42-year-old John Morrell & Co. employee says. 'That's what she taught me. That's how I feel, too.'

So even now, with a $400 million gorilla dominating Sioux Falls' philanthropic landscape - a donation from T. Denny Sanford intended to transform the former Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System - Motley doesn't intend to change any of his giving ways."

Bee spelled success for teen - Top Stories: "Caitlin Youse-Reese, a seventh grader at Meade Middle School, was second runner up, with Cristian Rivas, an eighth grader at The Severn School, as first runner up. He and Selena seesawed through three rounds before 'teriyaki' tripped him. She spelled 'philanthropy' correctly to win Round 13, and then according to the rules, had to spell one more word to win.

'I knew it,' said the red-headed eighth grader at Severn River Middle School."

Patrons at NY art benefit offered meeting with prime minister - More Inside Track - BostonHerald.com: "LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair, who plans to retire from office this year, will have the chance to mingle with some of the United States’ richest philanthropists at a fundraiser in June, an art publication reported Sunday. The Art Newspaper said patrons who paid at least $25,000 to attend a New York benefit in May for Britain’s Tate Gallery were being invited to meet Blair and his wife, Cherie, at the prime minister’s Downing Street residence on June 16."